Yay, for your brother, Frankenbuddha!

good news about your brother, Frankenbuddha!

Good news, Frank!

Glad to hear it Frank.
 
And it`s definitely not too much mememe, sj. We like to hear from you, and in fact I was thinking about you the other day. I know you are under a whole ton of stress, so don`t feel like you have to suppress it for us. Do you want to air out your tasks? `Cause some of us are good at breaking things down into chunks and maybe we could help.

And it`s definitely not too much mememe, sj. We like to hear from you, and in fact I was thinking about you the other day. I know you are under a whole ton of stress, so don`t feel like you have to suppress it for us. Do you want to air out your tasks? `Cause some of us are good at breaking things down into chunks and maybe we could help.

Thanks, Liese, that is very sweet. I need to wrap all the gifts, ribbon all the gifts, buy stocking stuffers for Dave, get to the market (Peapod raised their minimum to a $60 purchase, make a ton of bark. And I still don't know what I have to bring to TCG's family's house for the 25th and the 26th because his stepmom hasn't told me yet. And sometime between now and the 1st I need to clean everything at our place, which I know I shouldn't be stressing about yet because it is not the priority but everytime I trip over something I stress out because this place is a MESS. And right now I am running late to get thessally to get our CSA for the week, and then I stupidly made plans to go out with H tonight because I am still feeling very guilty about the babysitting debacle last Friday.

Well, one thing you could cross off is ribboning gifts. Gift wrapping (or, even easier, gift bagging) is enough!

And divide the clean everything into discrete tasks (like, clean bathroom, clear off dining room table, etc.) and see what you are up for tackling now that might make your life less stressy.

Ok, go get Thessaly. Meanwhile we`ll sort out. Definitely agree with the gift bags suggestion. It`s way faster, still pretty, and reusable. They come in all sizes.
 
Peapod: do you have a neighbor you could go in together with? If not, stocking stuffers/groceries can be one trip.
 
Cleaning: two possible approaches. One, set a timer and do small discrete tasks. Doesn`t matter what, just that for fifteen minutes you worked on it and you know you`re making progress. Two, chose a space. Clean that space, then defend it. I like to do the dining room table because it`s easy to see it`s clear, and then I can just pick up whatever random thing lands there.
 
For example, right now I am working on my bedroom. It`s not the most important thing right now, because guests won`t be in there, except maybe for coats. But it will help my state of mind to know it`s clean. And then I can step in there during the day to breathe and relax for a moment. If stuff being messy is stressing you out, take a few minutes, and straighten. Then go back to the more urgent task.

Just got back from the oral surgeon. One more wisdom tooth gone. Biting on gauze now, which I hate. (I think I hate the gauze part more than the surgery part. They numb me enough that I can't feel the surgery, but I can feel the gauze and it's all wrong and ick and want it out.)

I'm glad you got it taken care of before it got bad, Hil.

sj, I'm sorry you are feeling overwhelmed. It's one of the sucky parts of the holiday season - so much to do. My sister cut back on things like cards and presents to extended family. When she called to tell me not to expect it, she said "It's just not fun for me, and the Christmas is supposed to be fun." I told her I completely understood. But please to send pics of her family at some point in the year when it wasn't stressful, because I still want them.

My mom just tried to order Chinese food. I thought I could eat chow fun noodles with sesame sauce. The Chinese place has no more chow fun noodles. How does a Chinese restaurant run out of noodles?